# Yourself on the internet, eight or so years ago.



## Storm Earth and Fire (May 12, 2012)

Now, I don't know how many of you are old enough to have such a history, but I was looking at the wayback machine to try and find old RPs I did on both iterations of the Pokemon Crater forums (high-five if anyone here was a part of that), but alas, only page one is archived and the threads don't work. No way to look at my profile, either.

So, I tried Googling my old username + Pokemon Crater. I find an ancient post on some Yu-Gi-Oh! proboard by none other than 'shotgunknight12' dating back to 2004. He spoke (in a manner most obnoxious and offensive to people who enjoy good grammar) of this Pokemon Crater, about how much he enjoys roleplaying, and how the others should join him there (once the forums returned). His username there being 'link008'. You can hover over my username here to see the connection. 

This led me to at least one other forum dating from the same time period, run by someone from the same YGO board. It was my first time as an admin, and I managed a brief 'coup', taking over the place and introducing the crowd to roleplaying.

I was a mess back then, of course. My words were only properly capitalized if it was a RP post, or in the case of proper nouns. I think my favorite quote from this period is 'i know, i know, an admin thats too lazy to capitalize half the time.'

I miss being so carefree sometimes, and I knew some great folks back then. Enough about me, has anyone here tried something like this? How do you feel about your online persona and presence back then as opposed to now?


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## Zero Moment (May 12, 2012)

Me? Eight years ago?

I was about seven, and therefore the internet did not exist yet.


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## Cerberus87 (May 12, 2012)

My first forum ramblings don't exist anymore. They were at GameFAQs I think, arguing with an idiot fellow member about how Perfect Dark was better than GoldenEye on the N64. Since GameFAQs deletes old topics, they're gone.


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## ultraviolet (May 12, 2012)

everything of old!me on the internet is deleted. ( ﾟ ヮﾟ)

there's posts on neopets (but the neopets boards are purged like, daily) and there's posts on ye olde tcodf of late which is gone as we all know.


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## Tailsy (May 12, 2012)

_don't make me think about that_

_if you make me think about that terrible things will happen!!!_


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## Superbird (May 12, 2012)

One thing's for sure, I always used correct grammar (or at least, what I thought was correct grammar). I've actually deviated from that pattern more often in the last few years. 

I'm not sure I was even ON the internet eight years ago, but when I did get on the first forum I gravitated to was Psypoke. That was fun for a while, but eventually I got bored of it. Interestingly, those first two years on that site were when I thought of my bird mono idea. But I was also a pretty huge n00b.

I like this place better because everyone is so friendly to each other and it's like a close-knit community more!


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## Dannichu (May 12, 2012)

I wrote _the most ridiculous_ fanfiction. And made up fake Pikachus. And was horribly n00b-ish, but so was everybody else because they were 10 years old too.


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## hopeandjoy (May 12, 2012)

Well, if we augment that to 5 years ago...

...On the other hand, I won't.

I was seven and happy.


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## Autumn (May 12, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> I wrote _the most ridiculous_ fanfiction. And made up fake Pikachus. And was horribly n00b-ish, but so was everybody else because they were 10 years old too.


I thought your old fanfics were awesome D: but that was like seven years ago sooooo...

i was stupid and egotistical
anyone who was around on old!TCoD may remember G-Mew and how much they hated her
especially in the art thread where she made shitty "3-D" sprites and everyone was like "they're shit" "NO THEY'RE NOT"
and her stupid RP's which were just ... stupid
and her stupid fanfics featuring Mary Sue characters and _incredibly stupid_ plotlines
and her stupid... everything

yeaaaaah I've come a long way since those days.


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## Jolty (May 12, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> I wrote _the most ridiculous_ fanfiction. And made up fake Pikachus. And was horribly n00b-ish, but so was everybody else because they were 10 years old too.


nah man your fanfics and pikachus were awesome
i remember something about kadabras and bins???


how old was i 8 year ago... 12 JESUS CHRIST...
so i was pretty much on tcod all the time and i had my own pokemon fansite too and i had a forum which i neglected a lot 

and this was back when this forum right here was at its best. well not it's /best/, that was conforums, but IF tcod was still pretty great too. i still hadn't developed much of a personality, but i was friends with a looooot of people here.
then i met some guy here and we became the first long distance relationship in the history of tcod and he turned out to be an emotionally abusive piece of shit.

GOOD TIMES


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## Minish (May 12, 2012)

Every so often I get into this terrifying mood where I have to go root through internet history. I surface hours later.

Fortunately I don't think I published that much bad writing?? Though I do vaguely remember emo FFVII poetry fic or something which I was enormously proud of. Mostly I just roleplayed wolves which... I still do... ... except then they were called things like Shark and Opal and were secret shamans or something except to be super original I called them Sighters rather than Seers. :|a~

I actually owned my own decently-sized wolf RP forum, once! I pretended to be from Ethiopia where my parents owned a wolf sanctuary then one day I CONFESSED and it was my internet drama phase. Then proboards brought in a new rule where it asked everyone who owned sites their age and because I was an awesome person I admitted that I wasn't 13 and then they _deleted my entire site_ which I am still a little tiny bit not over.


actually going through tCoD history is _the funnest_ because the oldest stuff is where I'd *just* joined so there is nothing embarrassing about me, only about everyone else here!!!! :D


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## I liek Squirtles (May 12, 2012)

8 years ago I was 5-6. I was allowed half an hour on Playhouse Disney.com.


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## Zora of Termina (May 12, 2012)

When I first discovered the internet, it was over at ye olde TRsRockin forums, back when the site existed, back in 2005. I daresay I might have been worse than Poly up there, and she was pretty bad. 

To put this in perspective for you, 12 year old me admired her above just about every other member of that forum. 

Mercifully for them, 12 year old me never actually joined the forum. Not until two years later of course. Then when I actually joined I was still pretty awful.


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## Murkrow (May 12, 2012)

I believe the earliest forum I joined was serebii about six years ago, I just looked over my earliest posts now. I acted stupid but it's not really embarrassingly stupid because it's just how you'd expect a 13 year old to act. Every time I made a joke I'd make sure to say "(get it?)" and things like that. Also lol, 2006 me discussing the possibility of GSC remakes hoping they'd be made on the GBA rather than DS.

Though after my earliest posts there are things I find annoying about me. Like both there and here on my profile page my bio was "not a n00b".

In fact I was really shy even on the internet because I recall posting in the Zelda thread here after Phantom Hourglass came out saying there were some ship pieces I didn't have. Then someone PMed me (Grimdour I think, can't check because it was pre-crash) saying we could help each other get pieces of the ship. I was so freaked out that someone PMed me that I left for a couple of months hoping nobody would remember me when I came back. My plan might even have been to never come back but I dunno. If I recall I probably only had about 90 posts at the time so it's not like anyone would have known me anyway.

I probably did go on the internet before I joined any forums though, I can't really remember what I'd do. Probably flash games or something. Miniclip and the like, which I probably found (along with pretty much every website I went on back then) by googling the obvious thing of "free online games". Imagine how rebellious I must have felt whenever I came across a flash game website that had adult flash games as well! And without "ARE YOU OVER 18" so scare me away either!

Not exactly online but I remember I did try to make a website. It had menus and everything! Then I gave up when I realised I didn't have any idea how to put it _on_ the internet, and that it was quite a boring website anyway because every page was at most two paragraphs long, saying nothing significant at all. Though I do admire the effort I put into it, if I had that sort of determination today I'd probably finish a lot of the things I'm too lazy to do these days. If you look only at that I guess I'm actually a worse person now than I was then :(
Though this website I made didn't totally go to waste, because when year 10 came around and I was going an IT GCSE, we could chose between making a website or a poster for the "company" we were "working for". I just took that website and changed its purpose. (and changed papyrus to times new roman!)


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## Dar (May 12, 2012)

I was too young 8 years ago, but when I first discovered internet I was playing Club Penguin and ROBLOX nonstop.


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## Datura (May 12, 2012)

I founded and owned the most popular Sonic-related MSN Groups (RIP) page. Look around to get the gist of how I and my friends were.


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## Zexion (May 12, 2012)

I can't find anything from then, 8 at the time. But I know by then, I was on Twitter and Facebook, a MySpace on the way. I had a YouTube, but don't rememer it. I know that I would post random stuff, but I can't find any examples.


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## Autumn (May 12, 2012)

Jolty said:


> then i met some guy here and we became the first long distance relationship in the history of tcod and he turned out to be an emotionally abusive piece of shit.
> 
> GOOD TIMES


who was that? i don't remember this



Zora of Termina said:


> When I first discovered the internet, it was over at ye olde TRsRockin forums, back when the site existed, back in 2005. I daresay I might have been worse than Poly up there, and she was pretty bad.


thank you <3
(nah it ain't insulting if it's true!)



> To put this in perspective for you, 12 year old me admired her above just about every other member of that forum.


i still don't know how/why


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## Datura (May 12, 2012)

Polymetric Sesquialtera said:


> who was that? i don't remember this


Deretto_Eevee. The only thing I remember about him was him getting really pissy when somebody gave an Eevee sprite a Dorito-shaped head.


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## Stormecho (May 12, 2012)

I... was eleven and not really on forums then? I think I RPed wolves at that point. But I might have been too young to even do that, at least.

I was still an awful noob when I joined tCoD, but all records of that time were lost in the crash. I remember being pretentious and also posting my fanfic and thinking it was _the best thing ever_ when it kind of clearly sucked.


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## Jolty (May 12, 2012)

what must it be like to not remember dreto
hell i still remember when his fucking birthday is (2 days ago lolololol) and it bums me out _every year_


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## Coloursfall (May 12, 2012)

man 8 years ago, I was like... 13. I remember being on Neopets (since I was in grade 4 or so, so like... 11 years ago?) and MSN groups and ff.net writing horrible Yu-Gi-Oh mary-sue fic it was all kinds of glorious in a naive, silly way. 

I really only have records of about 5~ years back on dA though, since I purged my old ff.net account several years back and I think MSN groups bit the big one. Also, while my very first one isn't around anymore, I still have a pretty old Neopets account I still play on.


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## Vipera Magnifica (May 12, 2012)

Eh... stuff I said a few years ago is rather cringe-worthy.

Not that I used bad grammar, just the fact that I spouted unfunny memes ALL the damn time.


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## Flareth (May 12, 2012)

I was a huge twerp, at the same forum as Zora and Poly. My roleplays were stupid but I had fun with them.

Oh yeah, and I had a Neopets account way back when, I deleted that one. I have a few now that I still play on for nostalgia purposes

Oh yeah and the stuff I wrote....I wonder if that stuff still exists...


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## Zora of Termina (May 12, 2012)

Flareth said:


> I was a huge twerp, at the same forum as Zora and Poly. My roleplays were stupid but I had fun with them.


But you were _my_ twerp. And you're still my twerp. And you're amazing. And that's what counts, right? :3


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## Autumn (May 12, 2012)

Jolty said:


> what must it be like to not remember dreto
> hell i still remember when his fucking birthday is (2 days ago lolololol) and it bums me out _every year_


do you need a hug


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## Tarvos (May 12, 2012)

I was a dick a few times.

Then I chilled out.


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## surskitty (May 12, 2012)

Jolty said:


> what must it be like to not remember dreto
> hell i still remember when his fucking birthday is (2 days ago lolololol) and it bums me out _every year_


Want a hug?  I still remember him linking to the contents of his porn folder at a yim group chat filled with middle schoolers.


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## Tailsy (May 12, 2012)

ugh he did that SO MANY TIMES it just got really obnoxious and tedious

like come on i don't really care about your porn folder or its contents, no matter how old i may or may not be

go and whack off to it in silence pls


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## Teh Ebil Snorlax (May 12, 2012)

Eight years ago, I wasn't on the Internet. Four years ago though? I was _awful_. I was reading posts from when I was fourteen and on here. Christ on a bike, how did you guys not just repeatedly defenestrate me or something.


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## surskitty (May 12, 2012)

learn to label nsfw!  it's not that fucking hard!


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## Phantom (May 12, 2012)

Oh geez, I was absolutely terrible when I first joined. Charizard2K/ Fire Master, the fourteen year old me. TCoD was my first forum, and I had _no idea_ how to work a forum. I would ask stupid questions asking what a sig was, or how to know when someone responded to my post. 

If past me were to join now I'd probably troll the hell out of myself.

Over every summer break I was on TCoD all day, every day, sitting on my hands and waiting for people to respond to my posts. I used to get so excited when someone responded to a topic/thread I posted. I wrote terrible stories, and then got pissed when people told me _just how terrible_ they were. It was my first real experience with the internet, since I'd hardly went online before that. Hell, I didn't know what Google was until I was 13ish. 

Gmew I was probably worse than you. Sad part is no one remembers me, which is funny cause I posted quite a bit... but mostly in Insanity, which back then gave us no post count. 

But to go back... would be sooo cool. It was some of the best days, those summer breaks where it was just me hanging out at TCoD... sometimes I miss those IF forums.

Crap, now I am gonna go back again and just stalk my old posts.


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## Jolty (May 12, 2012)

Polymetric Sesquialtera said:


> do you need a hug





Viki said:


> Want a hug?  I still remember him linking to the contents of his porn folder at a yim group chat filled with middle schoolers.


hugs are always appreciated ;_;



Twilight Sparkle said:


> ugh he did that SO MANY TIMES it just got really obnoxious and tedious
> 
> like come on i don't really care about your porn folder or its contents, no matter how old i may or may not be
> 
> go and whack off to it in silence pls


what's worse though is when timmy and i were dating the first time, he somehow ended up in our conversation (i honest to god forget how) and linked us to sites full of animal shaped dildos
and he also said we should take lots of pictures of us doing things.

oh i must share this too because it's funny if you don't think about it for too long
one time he said to me "well we'll have at least three kids to start with, maybe adopt some, and then when they've grown up we'll have some more :D"
at the time he was 16 and i was 13
CATHOLICS, MAN


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## Tailsy (May 12, 2012)

whit ye sayin boot catholics

huh punk huh you got somethin to say?????????


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## Dannichu (May 13, 2012)

Twilight Sparkle said:


> whit ye sayin boot catholics
> 
> huh punk huh you got somethin to say?????????


Catholicism jokes don't work in a Scottish accent D: In fact, just talking about Catholicism in anything other than an Irish accent feels wrong.



Jolty said:


> nah man your fanfics and pikachus were awesome
> i remember something about kadabras and bins???





Polymetric Sesquialtera said:


> I thought your old fanfics were awesome D: but that was like seven years ago sooooo...


I guess because everybody was the same age as me (or younger), people were always so nice about the wackiness/lolrandomness I came out with. I cringe when I think about ye olde fanfics, but every so often I'll get a PM on Deviantart or something from somebody who remembers them :p


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## Tailsy (May 13, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> Catholicism jokes don't work in a Scottish accent D: In fact, just talking about Catholicism in anything other than an Irish accent feels wrong.


Oh, sectarianism works in every accent.


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## Zapi (May 13, 2012)

Eight years ago, I was like...6? I don't really remember ever doing anything on the internet at that point.

I think the first site I ever joined was ROBLOX, when I was 9 or 10. I was a complete and total _idiot _back then, and I still cringe when I look back at some of my old posts. That site was my first introduction to Roleplaying, except it was the really crappy kind that's not even written in paragraph format and everyone has 582651789265 characters. And, since that was the first time I'd ever Roleplaying, I thought that was just how roleplaying worked everywhere until someone posted a thread about how crappy the RPers on that site were.

A year or two later, I started playing Spore. I made quite a few friends amongst the players who, like me, spent more time making random creatures/buildings/vehicles/etc. than actually playing the game. I think I had matured a little bit by then, since most of my memories of Spore are actually _good_ memories. And I believe I started writing and uploading a "fanfic" (in quotations because I think it was mostly of my own creation) for that site, which to this day is the only fic I've ever shared publicly (aside from those crappy journal things on GTS+ that were never intended to be anything more than silly things I wrote when I was bored). It wasn't anywhere near the best thing ever, but I still have the first two chapters of it (which is all I ever got down to writing) saved on my computer and it at least doesn't make me want to gauge my eyes out when I read it.

Um yeah, that's all of my internet history that I care to ramble about right now.


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## Autumn (May 13, 2012)

Jolty said:


> hugs are always appreciated ;_;


well *hug* then



> what's worse though is when timmy and i were dating the first time, he somehow ended up in our conversation (i honest to god forget how) and linked us to sites full of animal shaped dildos
> and he also said we should take lots of pictures of us doing things.
> 
> oh i must share this too because it's funny if you don't think about it for too long
> ...


god that's awful DDDD:


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## Flora (May 13, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> I wrote _the most ridiculous_ fanfiction. And made up fake Pikachus. And was horribly n00b-ish, but so was everybody else because they were 10 years old too.


To be quite honest that Kadabra was flipping _awesome_

Uh, I was nine? I don't believe I was on the internet at that.


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## Momo(th) (May 13, 2012)

I don't want to remember how much of a noob I was, mainly because I'm extremely antisocial unless I'm online. (The most social thing I do is go to school). When I'm online, I'm a very happy and social person.

Ironically, I tend to be a very deep person IRL, but I tend to be very blunt when I'm at an online conversation. Is anyone else like this, BTW?

Also, I remember how GOD AWFUL my stories/fan fictions were. I would start with an idea, then I would read other fanfictions for more ideas, then I'd be like "Oh, what a cool fan fiction!" copy it, and then I'd find another, and another, and another.


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## Cap'n Sofa (May 13, 2012)

Eight years ago I had first discovered the internet and joined the old Nintendo NSider Forums and I was basically a complete idiot who managed to transform himself into slightly less of an idiot in that I made a reasonable attempt to spell things right. And I honestly did pretty well for an eight-year-old I think.


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## Music Dragon (May 13, 2012)

Xion said:


> I don't want to remember how much of a noob I was, mainly because I'm extremely antisocial unless I'm online. (The most social thing I do is go to school).


You most likely mean "asocial". Pet peeve.


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## Butterfree (May 14, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> I guess because everybody was the same age as me (or younger), people were always so nice about the wackiness/lolrandomness I came out with. I cringe when I think about ye olde fanfics, but every so often I'll get a PM on Deviantart or something from somebody who remembers them :p


Your fanfics were like the most hilarious thing ever written when I was twelve, okay.

Also Jolty aaaa. D: *additional hugs?* (also having way too many Fluffy flashbacks)


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## Ulqi-chan (May 14, 2012)

Well, considering I was a young'un back then, I guess I was kind of new to the Internet. Which means I was kind of not using it. 

Though the memory of me spamming my mom's email one day when I was about four because I felt like a total troll in doing so still haunts me to this day. I distinctly remember a slap to the bottom and a time-out. 

When I first started with forums, though, I'd say the most dominant memories of me being an annoying brat who knew nothing of grammar or capitalization were at Cheatsguru. (I think there was a forum beforehand, but meh, I can't remember.) Sweet Nutella on an effing sandwich, I was a God awful _mess_. (DarkAura, you tell 'em) 
Whoo, and those times I accidentally posted the same thing twice and then posted again to say it was an accident and not intentional? Dear God in heaven.

 I also remember having this tic of making all my words "Southern." And all my grammar "Southern." (eg. Ain't that just the dandiest thang? I'll be gettin' m'self one soon. That's what'cha get when ya ain't quick enough, sunny boy.) GOD FORBID it was probably because I live in southern Georgia and have a distinguished Southern accent when I get irritated and start using improper grammar. 

And then there was that time I told everyone at CG I was a year older than I actually was. You know, to make everyone think I was actually _mature_. (I think when my birthday rolls around, I'll actually post my real age to see if it affects anything.) I WAS SO STUPID. 

_Heavens to the Betsy._ *hides in corner*


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## Autumn (May 14, 2012)

Butterfree said:


> (also having way too many Fluffy flashbacks)


Do you mind if I asked what ever happened there? I don't remember a whole lot about Fluffy or any TCoD romances back then other than that Fluffy was dating Light Mightyena, there were some issues with Light's mom, and not long after that (iirc) Fluffy was dating you, and then all of a sudden there wasn't Fluffy anymore and there was Shadey instead.


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## Worst Username Ever (May 14, 2012)

Oh god no... NO.

Well, I was 9, and a newbie to the net that didn't really know how to act. Example: My first thread on my first forum (the norwegian pokemon forum) got closed. I opened it again, and wrote that "a stupid jerk (a moderator) closed it". I think it was 3 threads before I stopped.

Also, I had some kind of obsession with Sneasel... Holy shit. I always wrote about how it was so cool and cute and awesome and fuckyeah and everyone else was just "SHUT UP ALREADY" and started mocking me for it, insulting Sneasel so I would get mad. I now understand why, and that yeah, I was annoying (but I still think it was wrong of half the forum to just gang up against me like that). Luckily, this phase of my net life is all gone and buried away... the only remnant is my Neopets username(sneasel363, because I WANTED TO BE NAMED SNEASEL BUT THAT WAS TAKEN so I decided OHLOL RANDOM NUMBERS YAY).

That brings me to another topic... Neopets. Oh god I loved Neopets. Still do, but not as much as back then. It was my internet childhood.

I wanted to make a website too... and that started shortly after I started using the internet, I think. So my dad helped me a bit to set up crappy Frontpage and make some things there. It started out as pictures of Pokémon cards, and later developed into some site about things I like (with stolen images EVERYWHERE. Well, I didn't claim to have made them, but yeah.) On one of them I even wrote "hey I just really wanted to use this, please don't get mad *name*" (in Norwegian), not even considering that they probably didn't know Norwegian, much less actually knew about my crappy little site. 
Then I changed it to English and tried making it a "pokemon/neopets/sonic" site. Bad idea. I had it for a few years, and it had little content other than facts everyone knows and my bad drawings.
In its last incarnation, it had a proper HTML menu at least. But then I gave up.


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## surskitty (May 14, 2012)

Ulqi-chan said:


> I also remember having this tic of making all my words "Southern." And all my grammar "Southern." (eg. Ain't that just the dandiest thang? I'll be gettin' m'self one soon. That's what'cha get when ya ain't quick enough, sunny boy.) GOD FORBID it was probably because I live in southern Georgia and have a distinguished Southern accent when I get irritated and start using improper grammar.


re: improper grammar: Fucking prescriptivism.  

Also quasi-phonetic spelling is the worst.  It assumes the reader would normally read it with a different accent to the one being conveyed.  Really, it says more about what accent you consider default than it does about the accent you're talking about.  8|


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## Music Dragon (May 14, 2012)

Ain't no nothing worse than prescriptivism!


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## Ulqi-chan (May 14, 2012)

Viki said:


> re: improper grammar: Fucking prescriptivism.
> 
> Also quasi-phonetic spelling is the worst.  It assumes the reader would normally read it with a different accent to the one being conveyed.  Really, it says more about what accent you consider default than it does about the accent you're talking about.  8|


I'm ashamed of my younger self. Whelp. 

Also, also:


Teh Ebil Snorlax said:


> Christ on a bike


New favorite thing.


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## Spoon (May 14, 2012)

I was eleven or so when I joined here, so as you'd expect I was fairly annoying. Except I think it was more that my sentences made little sense, posted a lot, and had no idea how to role-play than that I was truly obnoxious or bratty. I remember that I made a silly club apparently promoting burning things and quite possibly arson. Oh I drew some stuff, too.


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## Noctowl (May 14, 2012)

Shy. Like now. ^^;

I mean, my intro forum was just the world 'hello'.


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## Coroxn (May 14, 2012)

Oh my God the nostalgia I am a blubbering little blubberer right now.

I had this account on the Kingdom Hearts Wiki and I made a a fannon mechanic and new fannon Drive Forms and new fannon Party Members and oh my gawd I had so many friends on that IRC and I don't know any of them any more and I don't even remember why I left.

Then there was the Runescape Fan Fiction Wiki, which was long dead, and so I went back into it and advertised it and then people started doing it again and we held elections to see who would be the mods and I got selected and then we made the old creator mod us and it was magical. But then most people left, including Berus, the guy I was making a story serial with so I abandoned it. It's still alive now though, and I think that's partially because of me maybe?

And then we had Worthy of Publishing, where I wrote...not terrible, but hey, I was writing then, which is more than I can say for now.

I was so homophobic and transphobic like basically everyone in my school and I was the one who was getting into internet communities and meeting non cis and non hetero people and I guess the internet had been crucial in making me a more tolerant/decent person because everyone else except for my best friend (and maybe that's due to my influence because he doesn't internet) that was in that class is still prejudiced and hateful towards people.

And then I came here, just a year ago, which brings me nicely up to date.

This thread made me so happy, thanks guys.


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## Byrus (May 15, 2012)

Oh God. I was basically the epitome of LOLRANDOMXD humour back then. As well as an internet tough guy who was so ~*dark and edgy*~ and you just wouldn't understand. Just for fun, here's some choice quotes from one of my old Neopets accounts:



> Challenge me! I know you wanna! How do i know you wanna? Because i can read minds.....OK, maybe not but i like saying stupid random stuff that makes no sense.....*runs off holding a pitchfork*
> 
> *Sneaks up behind you* DEATH TO THE INVADER!! MWHAHAHAH!!! Sorry, Sugar rush. :D *starts chanting* DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM!! DOOM ON YOU! DOOM ON YOU!!! Oh yeah, I REALLLY WANNA BE PAINTED HALLOWEEN!!! ObSeSsEd dude! I could have a reeeeally sharp pitchfork and poke everbody with it! ^_^ MWHAHAHA!!! DOOM DOOM!! *is dragged off by a very annoyed rabid_mutt*
> 
> ...


(I have no idea why that account hasn't been purged; it's ridiculously old.)

And then I was a wannabe goon for... a while. It took me an awful long time to actually wise up to be honest, and I'm more of a quiet lurker now, which... may be for the best really. 

I also wrote some angsty stories and poems, though not much fanfiction funny enough. Just a couple of Pokémon stories, but they were set in their own ~*super dark*~ and angsty world and all my Pokémon OCs were demonic murderers from hell. They were basically just recoloured Pokémon with evil eyes and tattered wings though. I also seemed to be completely oblivious to the concept of paragraphs.

Oh yeah, and there was this time on the (really early conforums) MH that I got into a ridiculous argument with a girl called Freezachu. I don't know if Butterfree would remember this, but I had a PM conversation with her about it that also demonstrated my amazing maturity at handling the issue. The conversation also ended on a bit of an awkward note. Good times.


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## Minish (May 21, 2012)

! I remember Freezachu.

I have this really weird fascination with witnessing the lolrandom phase of all the internetgoers I know now :o it seems like seriously pretty much _everyone_ goes through it? It's kind of cute! It makes things pretty hilarious when people who've been around a while get genuinely annoyed by lolrandom things now as if it's like, this totally new irritating thing and ~definitely~ not a thing probably every kid on the internet does to some extent.

I don't think I was thaaaat bad, but. There was a lot of -shot- going on.


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## Autumn (May 21, 2012)

Cirrus said:


> I don't think I was thaaaat bad, but. There was a lot of -shot- going on.


I still use that. xD


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## Minish (May 21, 2012)

As long as it's not -brick'd-, everything is fine.


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## Music Dragon (May 21, 2012)

Ah yes. Back then, I was less comprehensible and more needlessly Patois, and I would - *laminated*


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## Adriane (May 22, 2012)

Eight years ago, I was 12! I was not on the Internet then, ohoho. 

(I attribute basically everything to #tcod. Seriously.)


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## opaltiger (May 22, 2012)

Chalumeau said:


> Eight years ago, I was 12! I was not on the Internet then, ohoho.
> 
> (I attribute basically everything to #tcod. Seriously.)


Lots of people have said this. We ought to start charging.


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## Autumn (May 22, 2012)

Music Dragon said:


> Ah yes. Back then, I was less comprehensible and more needlessly Patois, and I would - *laminated*


... somehow this post reminds me of sireafi.


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## Minish (May 22, 2012)

Chalumeau said:


> Eight years ago, I was 12! I was not on the Internet then, ohoho.
> 
> (I attribute basically everything to #tcod. Seriously.)


This is something I think about a lot! My life first few internetting years consisted mostly of wolf roleplaying and Neopets sooo I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but without the internet, I wonder how I would have ended up! I'm not sure whether to attribute more to the person who got randomly allotted next to me in an early high school class - who also wrote fanfiction online, was geeky, _cared_ about things, and turned out to be non-binary - or this place.

I feel bad, but just looking at my parents who don't care about social justice, don't read, don't do ... much ... ... I'm pretty thankful I was an online kid. \o/


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## Negrek (May 23, 2012)

I've left my Neopets account as basically a window back into my ~13-year-old internet self. It's not really a pretty picture.

For extra laughs at my expense, there are my old Neopian times submissions (I don't even remember *writing* that first one; no clue what it's about) or my my pet spotlight, featuring what is _actually_ the most terrible fanart on the internet.

I was such an unpleasant person back then. I'm reminded of that "what would you do if you could travel back in time to meet your former self" thread, and how baffled I was that no one else's answer was "punch past-me really hard in the face." Ah, well.


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## The Omskivar (May 23, 2012)

I've seen worse fanart, Neg, believe me.

My first internets was ALL the Neopets, and also Pokemoncrater.  Crater was the greatest thing for me I think, I'm actually still upset it's not around.

I didn't socialize on the internet at that point.  I was a good little boy who avoided strangers on the internet and just played flash games all the time.  Probably for the best, I was the weirdest little f**k.


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## Storm Earth and Fire (May 23, 2012)

I played Neopets _more_ than eight years ago. However, I only played, never was on the forums or anything, probably because I didn't know what internet forums were anyway.

I think I am at most only slightly upset that Crater isn't around anymore. The game itself was okay. The community was great, but if the forum had never died, I never would've come to tCoD in search of somewhere else to roleplay.


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## Cerberus87 (May 23, 2012)

Did you all do stuff like horrible fanart and roleplaying? Most I ever did when I was around your age was browsing the Gengar and Haunter's Pokémon Dungeon forums (I just lurked), and I already played Pokémon competitively. I also giggled whenever Nurse Joy appeared on the anime. :D


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## Minish (May 23, 2012)

Ooh, old Neopets accounts! Most of mine have been purged/updated since I was a kid, but I found one recently which is moderately amusing. If I knew what semi-colons were you'd think I could use them a few more times.........



> Hm. Welcome to my lookup. I am 12 years old and I live in England, which is in the United Kingdom. I come on Neopets usually every day, unless because of an inconvenience, or problem. However, on Saturday the 30th July, I shall be travelling to Germany to visit my father. During that time I may be able to use his computer a couple of times, but I shall not be back here in England for two weeks. If you wish to send me neomail, neofriend requests or such you may, but be warned that I might not be able to reply to them for a while. Please do not send me spammy neomail, and if you do, I am likely to ignore it and/or block you. Thankyou. And please stop asking if this is my first account; it is.


Did anyone else ~apparently~ get neomail about whether they're a newbie or not? I remember caring _so much_ about this.


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## ultraviolet (May 23, 2012)

Cirrus said:


> Did anyone else ~apparently~ get neomail about whether they're a newbie or not? I remember caring _so much_ about this.


oh oh oh I remember making a petpage FAQ which consisted of me making witty replies to nasty questions I didn't actually get (but it's not like anyone ever neomailed me anyway). I was so cool. B|


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## Frostagin (May 23, 2012)

Eight years ago I was tiny and therefore did not know the wonders of the internet.


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## Mai (May 24, 2012)

I don't even want to speak about _two_ years ago.


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## Keltena (May 25, 2012)

Mai said:


> I don't even want to speak about _two_ years ago.


I've got to agree with this. In fact, I'm fairly certain that any incarnation of past me will always cause horrible embarrassment, no matter how old I live to be.

That being said... eight years ago I don't think I did much on the internet, but make that seven or six and I was on Neopets roleplaying pokemorphs and warrior cats. Oh, I wrote a couple things for the Neopian Times too, actually; a few got in, which means my bad writing is there for anyone browsing the archives to see! Joy. I also remember a wolf roleplaying forum (what is _with_ everyone and roleplaying wolves as a kid?) where I had many happy times, mostly with a RL friend of mine. ...That was my own OMGRANDOM! phase, too; it was a really closeknit forum where everyone knew each other, but I _still_ got the admin and mod annoyed at me for being too crazy. Oops.

I did join the Neopian Times Writers Forum after getting stories in, though, and I definitely had some good times there even if looking back on how I acted would probably make me cringe. And then there was my whole roleplaying on Gaia phase... Those sure were some elitists!

Stopping now before I ramble on. I'm pretty amused by how so many people seem to have gone through ~random~ phases and wolf roleplaying, though! I should ask some friends and see what other patterns I can find...


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## H-land (May 25, 2012)

I don't remember me eight years ago very well. Don't think I care much for me eight years ago, either, though; probably just as well. All I'm sure of... well, let's see. This would have been around 2003 or 2004. I would have been in the last years of elementary school or in middle school. Think 2003 was the year I went to Lancaster PA over spring break, got my GBA and Sapphire version.

So I guess I was doing a lot of YIM, overindulging in silly "randomness" and the like. Think that's when I was playing Runescape, too, more than Neopets. Think I was mostly acting self-important and pretensions, trying to brown-nose and make connections all about. Definitely some *brick'd* and -shot- going on. Nobody knew what /me was at all. Oh, and I was paranoid as all-get-out.

Not to say that I don't still get paranoid, pretensions, and/or self-important today. It just happens less. Just wish I'd spent more time with HTML-- or something more marketable, like even Java-- and less time on the monkey cheese YIM convos and forum posts. Though they _were_ fun, at least at the time. And it's nice to still have the folks from back in the day that I still hang around with now.


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## Tailsy (May 25, 2012)

I never did wolf roleplaying, but I did a *lot* of Warriors RPing. I actually co-ran a pretty popular site for a while, where I had like twelve characters and somehow managed to juggle them all because you can do that when you're like, fourteen.


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## Worst Username Ever (May 25, 2012)

Oh, and it turns out there was MORE bad stories. While having to use our oldy-old computer of old to print something, I looked at my saved crap and found this... "fanfic" thingy? 

Some bits of it:

Bidoof: Let’s go inside here!
Lickitung: Hmmmm… where did they go? ...OH A GIANT PUMPKIN!
Minun: Oh no! He’s trying to eat our pumpkin!
Lickitung: WHOOOOAAA! *falls down cliff*
----------------------------
Lickitung: Where’s the pumpkin… THERE IT IS! *licks*
Pumpkin: I don’t think so… *turns around*
Lickitung: Whoa… I’m so hungry I’m hallucinating!
Pumpkin: Well, stop licking me!
Lickitung: Why should I listen to a giant pumpkin? *licks*
Pumpkin: *attacks* STOP LICKING ME.
Lickitung: Okay, okay! I’ll stop!
Pumpkin: Promise?
Lickitung: Yes, just stop!
Pumpkin: Really?
Lickitung: Yeah, I’ll stop!
Pumpkin: How do I know you’ll keep your promise?
Lickitung: Uh… MOOOOOOOOMMYYYYYYYY! *runs away*

It was all in the same script-format... thinking back, I called it something with "episode" so I might have thought of making videos of that back then? glad that never happened!

also, old pictures... mostly crappy paint and oekaki pics. all the paints were saved in bmp because i had NO IDEA about proper format saving. also for a long time i didn't know you could select other colors than the standard ones (unless selecting from another picture)


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## Dannichu (May 29, 2012)

Cirrus said:


> I feel bad, but just looking at my parents who don't care about social justice, don't read, don't do ... much ... ... I'm pretty thankful I was an online kid. \o/


My parents raised me to be a massive communist, so I think the internet was just the icing on my very socially liberal cake. 

And I might be taking much more credit than is due, but while I myself have been influenced by delightful online places like this, I've done my fair share of corrupting children many miles away into thinking value-destroying things like homosexuality is okay, or free healthcare is great. Which feels pretty fantastic :)


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## Cerberus87 (May 29, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> My parents raised me to be a massive communist, so I think the internet was just the icing on my very socially liberal cake.
> 
> And I might be taking much more credit than is due, but while I myself have been influenced by delightful online places like this, I've done my fair share of corrupting children many miles away into thinking value-destroying things like homosexuality is okay, or free healthcare is great. Which feels pretty fantastic :)


There was no internet for me until I was 12 years old. School turned me into a liberal person.


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## Jolty (May 29, 2012)

the term "social justice" makes me laugh

yeah the internet opened my mind a lot too really
my parents are both pretty tolerant about most things though, or at least my dad is. they still come out with a fair amount of problematic things but my dad has has been improving on that for ages

h o w e v e r
in the last 2 years or so, i have been quite a lot less tolerant for some things because of the internet. well i dunno if "tolerant" is the word, more like less patient.
i only have two moron-free spaces and it gets frustrating


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## Tarvos (May 29, 2012)

I was raised non-religiously too, and fairly liberally. Often I have found that I came to the conclusion that for <insert topic> I would develop < x opinion> and then it would turn out my parents think approximately the same thing (might be a different nuance). Most of the time I discover that independently even, without them explicitly telling me they think that way.


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## Autumn (May 29, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> And I might be taking much more credit than is due, but while I myself have been influenced by delightful online places like this, I've done my fair share of corrupting children many miles away into thinking value-destroying things like homosexuality is okay


speakin the truth right here y'all
(okay well i was a homophobe for a bit after realizing danni was lesbian but not for very long :D)



Grindin' 2010 said:


> My parents are atheistic and moderate-liberal and cool with a lot of things. It was a very safe childhood at home. I would imagine it's formatively useful to have an affirming place to go at the end of the day.


this is _so_ true.


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## Dragiiin123 (May 29, 2012)

club penguin and adventure battlequest all day everyday


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## Dannichu (May 30, 2012)

Jolty said:


> the term "social justice" makes me laugh


I find it a bit disappointing, because whenever anybody talks about SJA (Social Justice Activism/Activists), my first thought is of the Sarah Jane Adventures.


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## Zora of Termina (May 30, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> I find it a bit disappointing, because whenever anybody talks about SJA (Social Justice Activism/Activists), my first thought is of the Sarah Jane Adventures.


I only think of Tumblr slacktivists who attack you just for existing and I can't take it seriously, which is a shame because the movement has some very good messages. :l


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## Minish (May 31, 2012)

I've seen some intelligent breakdowns of the term, but there's hardly much better other than "actively not being a dick 24/7".


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## shy ♡ (Jun 6, 2012)

Social Justice makes me think of a league of superheroes wearing Social Justice Warrior capes and leotards that all have Social Justice Powers like comforting triggered people and handing out super-delicious ice cream and informing people of how ignorantly oppressive they are with just a touch of their finger and they're are all super diverse in every way and don't take any shit from anyone.


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## Adriane (Jun 7, 2012)

Pathos said:


> Social Justice makes me think of a league of superheroes wearing Social Justice Warrior capes and leotards that all have Social Justice Powers like comforting triggered people and handing out super-delicious ice cream and informing people of how ignorantly oppressive they are with just a touch of their finger and they're are all super diverse in every way and don't take any shit from anyone.


Leotards, yes.

But _*no capes*_.


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## ColorBlind (Jun 19, 2012)

I remember my noob days on the internet. I was ten-years-old when I joined Serebiiforums. I double posted a lot. I didn't know how to post images from my computer, so I spammed someone's banner thread about how to do it. When it was unexpectedly closed, I didn't know why. D= No one ever answered my question either. Then there was this one time when I bumped up a thread that was talking about spamming. One of the admins (I think his username was Edward Elric) went into a whole ragefest about me bumping. I didn't know it at the time, but the thread was a sticky so I was within my rules. Anyway his rage scared the crap out of me, so I ended up becoming a lurker on pretty much every forum since.

Around my noob days I also spent months joining pretty much every Pokemon forum I could find. I still have my old Neopets account. I don't use it very much. I prefer using my old Subeta account which is around the same age. The username I tended to use everywhere was "freelymew". I joined DA with that name in Christmas 2005. I have had the urge of creating a new account, but I joined on Christmas day so I feel special whenever I see it. :3

I didn't join TCOD until the move to vBulletin. I didn't post very much. The community was very different. Everyone seemed so close to each other that I felt like I was intruding. I also felt this way over at the Valley of Nightmare's forums. Generally when I join a place, I don't delete my account and I login every now and then so that it isn't purged. Joining this place did prompt me to create a LiveJournal. :3

I remember making my very first website on Freewebs. The premade layout was a white background with pink headers and a pink menu. I thought I was so awesome with my website...then I found out you can only make seven pages unless you were in HTML mode. I didn't want to learn HTML because I thought it looked hard. Once I discovered Lissa Explains it All, I finally learned it. I had always wanted a website. One of my early HTML sites was just a Serebii clone. xD I was such a noob back then.

My art was terrible. I was drawing everything freehand with a mouse. I was determined to make nice images using a mouse. I didn't discover the tablet pen until maybe five years ago, but I didn't get my first tablet until last Christmas. O,o; 

I was never social. I normally lurk everywhere. I still do that now only not as much as I used to due to lack of time. I'm slowly coming out of my shell. I find it hard to do it, but I'm trying.


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## glitchedgamer (Jun 19, 2012)

One word: Neopets.

Besides that it was games on the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon websites. Also remember collecting digital cards or something on Nick's website.


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## Murkrow (Jun 19, 2012)

stella said:


> Serebiiforums ... someone's banner thread


Oh god this reminds me. There was somone's banner or 'trainer card' shop thread. I thought that they were _actual_ shops i.e. You had to pay for them with real money.


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## voltianqueen (Jun 29, 2012)

Eight/nine years ago was when I first started learning to use the internet by myself. I tried making a Neopets account at that time, but I didn't know how to make an email so I didn't get to. During those times I mostly just looked up Fushigi Yuugi and Pokemon pictures and fanfics. I remember reading a sex scene in a FY fic and thinking "omg they really wrote penis" .... I also remember finding Digimon porn

We didn't have net for a few years after that, so when we got it again when I was 13, it was really exciting. I finally got to play on Neopets like I wanted to before. I remember how amazed I was at the fact that I could actually talk to other people online, and I spent hours the first night sending mail and posting in a bunch of threads looking for new friends. Most of my time on Neopets was spent in private mail just talking, so it wasn't all that embarrassing, but I also remember posting some "random" things on the forums and cheesy Pokemon fics involving stuff like scars and mysterious pasts. Anyway, I learned some basic stuff there like what XD is and what jk means...and stuff from the Neopets HTML help -__-

Eventually I left Neopets for another pet site called Zetapets, which was smaller and therefore had a much more friendly and organized forum. I also joined Serebii forums around the same time. I really loved Zetapets.. I was on there as long as possible everyday talking on the forums and collecting my favorite items. I participated in and started up a lot of bad rps which usually involved Pokemon, some kind of fantasy, or wolves. I remember once my cousin and I got into a fight with two other people on there after I defended a friend one of the people called "illiterate" ... even though I wasn't exactly sure what the whole deal really was.

Spending time on Zeta and Serebii was sort of like "training" or something for whenever I joined other sites. I know that I asked redundant questions and posted some generally dumb or uninformed things on both sites... I felt like Serebii was harsh to me so I moved on after I got bored and landed at TCoD. Still a bit green, yeah, but not so loud about it. I still rarely post, but it's one of my favorite forums to visit.

At some point I joined ff.net and youtube and posted my mediocre Tales of the Abyss fics and sloppy first videos. The fanfiction is...okay, but I kind of really hate reading it because of cheesiness.


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## shadow_lugia (Jul 4, 2012)

Hmm... I'm turning 16 in a couple of weeks so 8 or so years ago would put me at age 8. Did I even play Pokemon when I was 8? I think I started playing it in 5th grade, and simple math puts me at 10 years old then. Apparently, I didn't even play Pokemon eight or so years ago.

Well, if I wasn't even playing Pokemon, then I probably wasn't on the Internet very often at all. I mean, every community and corner of the Internet that I've ever been to, it all traces back to the Pokemon community. I remember visiting zoobooks.com obsessively as a young child (as in, 3-5 years old) but that's really it.

When I first became an active user of the Internet, I was a huge noob and the exact kind of person (well, one of the kinds of people) that I absolutely hate today. I can't even identify with myself at that age at all, and I hope that this is a good sign of me maturing over the years and not a sign of some sort of mental disorder that I don't yet know of (and I know of a few mental abnormalities that I do have).


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